When this latest suit was filed in the Monterey Superior Court last week, of note was the page dedicated to it on the Goldwater Institute’s website, addressing how “home-sharing” has long been a way of life in Pacific Grove.

But P.G. resident and member of Pacific Grove Neighbors United Luke Coletti pointed to the distinction behind home-sharing and short-term rentals.

“Despite what the Goldwater Institute is claiming, the plaintiffs are not involved in Home Sharing,” said Coletti. “Instead, they operate an un-hosted whole-house short-term vacation rental (mini-motel). The lawsuit errs in conflating the two.”

Collected 17 percent of registered voters signatures. Webmaster here left PG 7 years ago when the vacation home investment bubble took away our affordable funky P.G. rental house, so you know where I stand on absentee owners that do nothing for the neighborhood.

The certified initiative would restore the city’s zoning rules and prohibit short-term vacation rentals in residential areas outside the coastal zone, which is overseen by the California Coastal Commission. Specifically, it would aim to provide an 18-month phase-out period for existing permitted short-term rentals that become nonconforming uses under the measure and to require voter approval of any changes to the measure. The initiative would not affect short-term rentals in commercial districts or the area governed by the coastal zone and wouldn’t change the city’s existing rules allowing room rentals in resident-occupied single-family homes.

Retired teachers from north unable to pay for their vacation home in P.G. without renting it out to different tourists every weekend, oh the agony.

“I’m devastated – we have one house that was considered a duplex and we lost both of those,” said Beverlee Taylor, who along with her husband Richard is a retired teacher who lives in Pleasanton but comes down to Pacific Grove often. The two discovered their love for P.G. 49 years ago when they honeymooned here.

“We don’t make much on it but we like to come down here with our family,” said Taylor, noting the $2,665 mortgage and close to $9,000 in taxes they paid. The proceeds they made on it as a short-term rental “met expenses … it paid expenses,” Taylor said.

STRONGpg includes Joy Colon-Jello who’d rather rent her house out as hotel rooms.

At the time, Mayor Bill Kampe explained the system was meant to reduce density in 52 blocks in the city, noting that out of the 475 blocks in the city, 175 have STRs present and 52 of those are over-dense by a 15 percent criteria.

In response, STRONGpg filed a lawsuit in April seeking a motion for preliminary injunction that would stop the lottery from occurring in the near future while the complaint filed against the city in regards to the revised STR ordinance is being investigated.

Most of these “short term rental” businesses are owned by out of town companies or people that don’t live in P.G. They fought against the pigs and chickens already, now they fight to turn neighborhoods into motels.

Pacific Grove’s rules, the suit says, “unlawfully violate, deny and impair the fundamental vested rights of the petitioners and others lawfully using their properties for short-term occupancy and rentals.”

Should also collect licensing fees and share the profits with inconvenienced neighbors.

“We wanted to enter into an agreement with Airbnb because they’re the biggest platform in the vacation rental market,” said Pacific Grove City Manager Ben Harvey. “What this will do is require anybody who is renting (a short-term rental) through Airbnb to remit the (transient occupancy tax) at the time they book their rental with Airbnb collecting it at that time.”